Migrant flights to San Diego halted

FILE - In this June 20, 2014 file photo, immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally stand in line for tickets at the bus station after they were released from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility in McAllen, Texas. Tackling what he has called a humanitarian crisis, President Barack Obama on Tuesday, July 8, 2014 asked Congress for $3.7 billion to cope with a tide of minors from Central America who are illegally crossing the U.S. border, straining immigration resources and causing a political firestorm in Washington. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
The Associated Press

FILE - In this June 20, 2014 file photo, immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally stand in line for tickets at the bus station after they were released from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility in McAllen, Texas. Tackling what he has called a humanitarian crisis, President Barack Obama on Tuesday, July 8, 2014 asked Congress for $3.7 billion to cope with a tide of minors from Central America who are illegally crossing the U.S. border, straining immigration resources and causing a political firestorm in Washington. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

The Border Patrol on Thursday called a halt to the transfer of Central American migrants from Texas to San Diego for Border Patrol processing, after two emotionally charged weeks that divided activists on both sides of the national debate on immigration.

“The flights have ceased for now. I’m not aware of any plans to resume the flights,” said Paul Carr, a spokesman with U.S. Customs and Border Protection in San Diego. “The processing backlog in Texas has been reduced, so they can handle their own processing on site.”

The flights were launched by the Border Patrol as a surge of Central Americans arrived at the U.S. border in South Texas asking for asylum and overburdening immigration facilities there. They have come for a mix of reasons, including poverty, dangerous living conditions, and a belief that they would be permitted to stay.

In the past week, three flights landed in San Diego. Migrants on the first flight were transported to Murrieta for processing by the Border Patrol, but their buses were turned back to San Diego in the face of protests by activists opposed to unauthorized immigration.

Additional flights have gone to Yuma, with migrants being bused to El Centro for processing.

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The vast majority of the migrants brought here were not expected to stay in the region.

“Most of them are not planning on staying in San Diego,” said Lauren Mack, a press officer with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego. “In fact, as of July 8, only one family intended to stay here in San Diego while immigration proceedings are ongoing.”

After migrants were brought to San Diego, as a way for Border Patrol agents here to help colleagues in Texas with processing, the news polarized San Diegans interested in the immigration debate.

But the crisis touched other nerves, as well: discontent with President Barack Obama’s immigration policy for being too stringent or too lenient; his use of executive orders; America’s moral responsibility as a first world nation; and its culpability regarding the root causes of the crisis.

Hours after the halt of the flights was announced, the issues were still being debated. Some with knowledge of the Border Patrol’s operations expressed skepticism that public opinion didn’t contribute at least in part to the suspension of the flights.

Shawn Moran, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, the agents union, said he believes the change was prompted by several factors, including political pressure.

“We’ve always said CBP only responds to negative publicity, so we do think that the protests in San Diego and Murrieta had some type of effect on them. It’s up for debate what kind of effect,” Moran said. He added other reasons will be hard to discern, because of the agency’s “secrecy.”

Gabe Pacheco, a San Diego border patrol agent and a spokesman for the local union, said that agents still will be required to use video equipment to remotely process Central Americans in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas.